Dell board considers 2 new buyout offers

ROUND ROCK, Texas (AP) ? Dell plans to negotiate with Blackstone Group and investor Carl Icahn over new acquisition bids for the computer maker that rival an offer of more than $24 billion from investors led by founder Michael Dell.

Dell Inc. says a special committee of board members has determined the bids from buyout specialist Blackstone and Icahn could be superior to a proposal from Dell and Silver Lake Partners to buy the Round Rock, Texas, company for $13.65 per share.

The company says Michael Dell is willing to work with third parties on alternate acquisition proposals.

Blackstone is proposing to buy the company for $14.25 per share. Icahn wants to buy up to 58 percent of Dell's shares for $15 each.

Icahn and other investors have criticized Michael Dell's bid as too low.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-25-Dell-Acquisition/id-17cc99a79c3a4cb7bab222cbeefacefc

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Small biz confidence up, not enough to boost hiring

Heesun Wee , CNBC ? ? ? 23 hrs.

Small-business owners' confidence improved a bit in February, but entrepreneurs still aren't feeling a surge of optimism ? or hiring.

That's the finding of a monthly survey by the National Federation of Independent Business. The group said Tuesday that its small-business optimism index edged up 1.9 points to 90.8 points from 88.9 points in January.

"While the Fortune 500 are enjoying record high earnings, Main Street earnings remain depressed," said NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg in a prepared statement. "Far more firms report sales down quarter over quarter than up."

"Until owners' forecast for the economy improves substantially, there will be little boost to hiring and spending from the small business half of the economy," he said.

The sentiment's slight increase follows a buoyant mood on Wall Street last week as the Dow Jones industrial average reached new all-time highs. A strong employment report helped. The economy created a net 236,000 new jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent.

But Main Street for the most part isn't celebrating just yet. Why?

For one thing, budget cuts related to the sequester are likely to have a rolling, accumulated impact on small business. Companies with U.S. government contracts must decide which workers will likely be laid off as funds to keep them on payroll evaporate. Nervous about fallout from Washington, many small- to mid-sized employers remain cautious on spending and hiring.

Expenses associated with the Affordable Care Act are another reason why small businesses are reluctant to turn temporary workers into full-time, permanent employees.

Under the act, "full-time" is defined as averaging 30 hours per week. Small companies with 50 or more workers will need to provide full-time workers with health insurance or face a fine.

Read more: Who's Hiring: Health Care, Yes; Wall Street, No

Traditional lending options for small-business owners also remain closed. Entrepreneurs are even getting squeezed by tighter restrictions for both credit cards and home equity lines of credits, which small-business owners often fall back on to keep businesses open.

"It's a real struggle for them due to lack of access of capital," said Rohan Mathew, co-founder of the Intersect Fund, a New Brunswick, N.J.-based nonprofit that supports low-income entrepreneurs in the region.

Founded in 2008 when Mathews was a Rutgers University student, Intersect Fund connects newbie upstarts with basic entrepreneurial skills such as registering as a limited liability company or LLC, implementing a bookkeeping system, crafting a marketing plan and creating a website.

The nonprofit also offers loans of up to $25,000 for, say a car, or needed repairs after Super Storm Sandy.

Read more: Youngstown's Story: Rust Belt Turns to 'Tech Belt' in the Name of Jobs

Mathew said many who reach out to the Intersect Fund have lost a wage job and have been without work for months ? even a year or more.

A separate unemployment measure that includes workers no longer looking for jobs and those working part-time for economic reasons hovers at 14.3 percent.

With limited work options and competition fierce, micro small-business owners are hoping to turn a passion ? food catering, styling hair, landscaping, tailoring clothes ? into a micro business, usually with five employees or less.

"They're not going to turn into Google or a billion-dollar business. That's not the point," Mathew said. "If they hire one to two people, that's a success."

The bottom line is support small upstarts, which generate meaningful locals jobs that are an alternative to working at a big-box retailer or fast-food restaurant in the neighborhood, Mathew said.

Looking ahead, few small-business owners anticipate conditions to improve. Three-quarters of small-business owners think business conditions will be the same or worse in six months.

? 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/small-business-confidence-not-enough-boost-hiring-1C8823619

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Attacks on Albinos Surge in Tanzania (Voice Of America)

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COLUMBIA, S.C.: Researcher: Zombie fads peak when society ...

Source: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/03/11/2486318/researcher-zombie-fads-peak-when.html

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Lunar impacts created seas of molten rock

Mar. 11, 2013 ? A new analysis of data from NASA's Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) shows that molten rock may have been present on the Moon more recently and for longer periods than previously thought. Differentiation -- a settling out of rock layers as liquid rock cools -- would require thousands of years and a fluid rock sea at least six miles deep.

Early in the Moon's history an ocean of molten rock covered its entire surface. As that lunar magma ocean cooled over millions of years, it differentiated to form the Moon's crust and mantle. But according to a new analysis by planetary scientists from Brown University, this wasn't the last time the Moon's surface was melted on a massive scale.

The research, led by graduate student William Vaughan, shows that the impact event that formed the Orientale basin on the Moon's western edge and far side produced a sea of melted rock 220 miles across and at least six miles deep. Similar seas of impact melt were probably present at various times in at least 30 other large impact basins on the Moon.

The research is published in the April issue of the journal Icarus.

Vaughan and his colleagues show that as these melt seas cooled, they differentiated in a way that was similar to the lunar magma ocean. As a result, rocks formed in melt seas could be mistaken for "pristine" rocks formed very early in the Moon's history, the researchers say.

"This work adds the concept of impact melt magma seas to the lexicon of lunar rock-forming processes," said planetary geologist James W. Head III, the Scherck Distinguished Professor of Geological Sciences and the senior researcher involved in the study. "It emphasizes that one must consider the detailed point of origin of the rocks in order to interpret them correctly."

That includes rocks brought back during the Apollo program and Russia's Luna missions. It's quite possible, the researchers say, that impact melt material is present in lunar samples thought to be representative of the early formation of the lunar crust. The amount of rock formed in melt seas is far from trivial. Vaughan and his colleagues estimate that impacts forming the Moon's 30 large basins produced 100 million cubic kilometers of melt, enough to make up 5 percent of the Moon's crust.

If lunar samples do include melt material, it would help to explain some puzzling findings from lunar samples. For example, in 2011 an analysis of a sample assumed to have originated in the early lunar crust suggested that the sample was 200 million years younger than the estimated time when the lunar magma ocean solidified. That led some researchers to conclude either that the Moon is younger than previously estimated or that the lunar magma ocean theory was flawed. But if that sample actually originated from a melt sea, its young age could be explained without rewriting the history of the Moon.

The melt sea at Orientale

The Orientale basin is only partly visible from Earth on the western edge of the Moon's near side. Because it's one of the few basins on the Moon that hasn't filled in with volcanic basalt, it provides a great place to investigate the geology of melt seas and to test whether they differentiate as they cool.

For the Orientale melt sea to have differentiated, it must have been liquid for a long time -- thousands of years. To be liquid that long, it must have been quite thick. That left the researchers with a question that wasn't easy to answer: How thick was the Orientale melt?

"In pictures, you're just seeing the top of an impact melt body, so we have to find a way to infer how thick it was," Vaughan said.

To do that, Vaughan and his colleagues took advantage of the fact that a liquid shrinks when it cools and solidifies. Data from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) showed that the sheet had subsided by about two kilometers from the surrounding rock, giving the researchers an idea of how much the sea shrank. With that data, they could calculate its volume and infer its depth.

According to the calculations, the Orientale melt sea must have been at least 10 kilometers thick. Far shallower melt sheets from impacts on Earth are known to have differentiated, so it's a safe bet that Orientale was thick enough to differentiate.

The next question was what that differentiation might look like. Based on the compositions of the lunar crust and mantle material melted, Vaughan could determine the composition of the impact melt sea. From there, he could make a model of what rocks would have formed as the melt sea cooled. According to the model, thick layers of rocks like dunite and pyroxenite form at the base of the melt sea from dense, early crystallizing minerals that sink through the melt. Other minerals float up through the melt to form layers of rocks such as norite at the top of the melt sea -- very similar to differentiation processes in the lunar magma ocean.

Vaughan's model is supported by remote sensing data from the Maunder crater, the remnant of an impact that excavated material from the melt sheet after it cooled. The data confirm a noritic composition at least four kilometers deep in the melt sheet.

Taken together, the findings suggest that impact melt seas produce rock in a way that's very similar to the lunar magma ocean. And that could help to clear up some lingering questions about the magma ocean paradigm.

"This is a mechanism by which the Moon was later modified to add petrologic complexity," Vaughan said. "It helps make sense of mineralogical data that doesn't always fit in this lunar magma ocean idea."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Brown University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. William M. Vaughan, James W. Head, Lionel Wilson, Paul C. Hess. Geology and petrology of enormous volumes of impact melt on the Moon: A case study of the Orientale basin impact melt sea. Icarus, 2013; 223 (2): 749 DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2013.01.017

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/3YZ_LnhkiMc/130311151257.htm

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Karzai Inflames U.S. Tensions (WSJ)

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Iran blocks use of tool to get around Internet filter

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian authorities have blocked the use of most "virtual private networks", a tool that many Iranians use to get around an extensive government Internet filter, Iranian media quoted an official as saying on Sunday.

A widespread government Internet filter prevents Iranians from accessing many sites on the official grounds they are offensive or criminal.

Many Iranians evade the filter through use of VPN software, which provides encrypted links directly to private networks based abroad, and can allow a computer to behave as if it is based in another country.

But authorities have now blocked "illegal" VPN access, an Iranian legislator told the Mehr news agency on Sunday. Iranian web users confirmed that VPNs were blocked.

"Within the last few days illegal VPN ports in the country have been blocked," said Ramezanali Sobhani-Fard, the head of parliament's information and communications technology committee, according to Mehr. "Only legal and registered VPNs can from now on be used."

Iran is holding a presidential election in June, its first since 2009, when a disputed result led to the worst unrest since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Protesters used services like Facebook to communicate during those "Green Movement" demonstrations, and the government has taken steps to curb access to the Internet in the last few months, apparently determined to prevent a repeat this time.

An internet user named Mohamad from the Iranian city of Isfahan confirmed that VPNs had been blocked.

"VPNs are cut off. They've shut all the ports," he said in a Facebook message, adding that he was using another form of software to access the service without a VPN. He said Skype and Viber, internet services used to make telephone calls, had also been blocked.

In January, Mehdi Akhavan Behabadi, secretary of Iran's Supreme Cyberspace Council, told Mehr that Internet users would soon be able to purchase registered VPN connections and that other VPNs were illegal. Financial institutions and other organizations might need to use VPNs for security reasons, which would be a legal use, Behabadi said.

The government's move to block VPN access may also have inadvertently cut off access to widely used sites such as Yahoo and Google, Sobhani-Fard told Mehr on Sunday, adding that parliament would study the issue more this week.

Amin Sabeti, a UK-based researcher on Iranian media and the web, said foreign companies such as airlines and banks had had problems using VPNs in Iran.

Through government-registered VPNs, Sabeti said, authorities could be able to monitor traffic more easily.

DETERIORATE

Millions of Iranians experienced disruption to email and Internet access ahead of parliamentary elections last year.

"As the June election approaches ... Iran's Internet connectivity, and the accessibility of uncensored information, continues to deteriorate," said a report on Iran's Internet infrastructure published in March by the UK-based group Small Media, which researches Internet use in Iran.

"Prominent Persian-language websites and other online services have been filtered one by one, and communications with external platforms is becoming progressively more difficult."

Iranian authorities banned Google's email service for a week last year but reopened access after complaints from officials. They have also announced plans to switch citizens onto a domestic Internet network which would be largely isolated from the World Wide Web.

(Reporting By Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Peter Graff)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-blocks-tool-around-internet-filter-173900635.html

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How Google Hacked Our Imaginations with #IfIHadGlass

In just about every James Bond and Batman film, there is a segment where Q (or Morgan Freeman) introduces us to a few new gadgets. At first, the hero looks over the objects quizzically, but then the handler demonstrates how to use them, unlocking their mystery and inviting both the hero and the audience to imagine how the tool might become integral to the story about to unfold. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/BRsQz4Cv-vg/how-google-hacked-our-imaginations-with-ifihadglass

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Streetlight Manifesto: The Receiving End of It All

I'm going to make a confession: I don't like Streetlight Manifesto nearly as much as I love Kalnoky-era Catch 22, but unless you're a ska-nerd, that probably means nothing to you. What all you normal people need to know is that Streetlight Manifesto's "Receiving End of It All" is horn-tastic (post-?)ska triumph with—in my opinion—one of the best instrumental bridges out there. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/yHcoDBRs45Y/streetlight-manifesto-the-receiving-end-of-it-all

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Beatles' secretary, "Good Ol' Freda," breaks silence in film

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - For Freda Kelly, secretary to the Beatles and head of the band's fan club, work sometimes involved trailing the Fab Four to the barber shop, sweeping their locks from the floor and mailing strands of hair to adoring female fans.

Kelly, one of the Beatles' longest-serving employees, worked for the British band for more than a decade but had never shared her stories publicly until now.

She breaks her silence in a new documentary, "Good Ol' Freda," which had its world premiere on Saturday on the second day of the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin.

"It's such a classic Cinderella story: Girl picks the job of a lifetime," director Ryan White told Reuters.

The tale is sure to delight fans of the Beatles, but White seeks to tell a story that transcends that audience, a story about an amazing decade in an otherwise ordinary life.

The film features four Beatles songs, which required the permission of many people, including the two surviving Beatles. It also includes never-before-seen photos of the band.

The documentary's title comes from the Beatles' 1963 Christmas recording, in which George Harrison thanks their secretary in Liverpool, and they all yell, "Good Ol' Freda!"

A mutual friend and a family connection to the 1960s' Liverpool music scene brought Kelly to the attention of White, who took the opportunity to tell her story.

The Los Angeles filmmaker, 31, who co-directed and produced the 2010 soccer documentary "Pelada," grew up knowing Kelly as a family friend who was a secretary. In fact, she is still a secretary, for a Liverpool law firm.

"I didn't know that she had a crazy back story," White said, adding he only discovered it when a friend put them in touch two years ago.

Kelly, now in her late 60s, says in the film that she wanted to record her stories for her 2-year-old grandson - stories that in many cases she never got around to telling her family.

Kelly, described by White as shy and humble, insists in the documentary that no one would be interested in hearing her story.

'I WAS A FAN MYSELF'

The loyal secretary, who was 17 when she started working for the band, has no intention of dishing dirt about her former famous employers, so White focused instead on her compelling personal narrative and interactions with the Beatles.

Kelly arranged bookings, cut paychecks and stayed up all night responding to fan mail. At the height of Beatlemania, the band received 2,000 to 3,000 letters a day, she said.

The Beatles - Harrison, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Ringo Starr - became the most famous pop band in history. They entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2001 as the world's best-selling group, with more than 1 billion records sold.

"The amount of personal attention and true affection that she served the Beatles' fans with - teenage girls, mostly - will probably go unmatched throughout music history," White said.

Kelly was briefly fired by Lennon after she arrived late before a show because she had been having drinks with an opening band. The secretary convinced Lennon to get down on his knee and beg her to stay.

"Freda was like part of the family," Starr says in the film as the closing credits roll.

Kelly closed down the Beatles' fan club offices after the band broke up in 1970, taking with her boxes of autographs, photos and memorabilia. She did not sell them, instead giving them away to fans over the years, White said.

Kelly, who attended Saturday's premiere and answered questions from audience members, says in the film that she did anything she could for club members.

"I was one of them," Kelly says. "I was a fan myself."

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/beatles-secretary-good-ol-freda-breaks-silence-film-022317589.html

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19 hurt after fire in 40-story building in NYC

By Michelle Acevedo and Ian Johnston, NBC News

Nineteen people, including nine firefighters, were taken to hospital after a fire broke out in a 40-story building in New York City early Saturday.

The blaze on the 12^th floor of the Second Avenue building in Manhattan's Upper East Side saw 25 fire department units ? a total of 110 firefighters ? go to the scene after the call came through at 3:42 a.m. ET., an FDNY spokesman said.

Some of the firefighters sustained burns that were described as minor, he said.

Ten civilians suffered minor injuries or were affected by smoke inhalation, the spokesman added. The fire was brought under control at 5:34 a.m. ET.

Fire officials said the fire was contained to one apartment, NBCNewYork.com reported.

This story was originally published on Sat Mar 9, 2013 9:38 AM EST

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/09/17248713-19-hurt-after-fire-in-40-story-building-on-nycs-second-avenue?lite

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Politicians look for credit in a rising economy

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Increased hiring, lower unemployment, stock market on the rise. Who gets the credit?

It's a hotly debated point in Washington, where political scorekeeping amounts to who gets blame and who gets praise.

Following Friday's strong jobs report ? 236,000 new jobs and unemployment dropping to a four-year low of 7.7 percent ? partisans hurriedly staked out turf.

"Woot woot!" tweeted former White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee. "With 12 million still unemployed?" countered Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell's spokesman, Don Stewart.

Presidents usually get the rap for economic downturns and reap benefits when things improve. But the main factors affecting the current recovery and the record activity in the stock market may have less to do with high-profile fiscal policy fights in Washington than they do in the decisions of the Federal Reserve Bank, which has pumped trillions of dollars into the economy, kept interests rates at near zero and pushed investors away from low-yield bonds to stocks.

"From a policy standpoint, this is being driven primarily by the Fed," said Mark Vitner, an economist at Wells Fargo.

Yet to some, Washington deserves little recognition.

"Economies recover," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and now head of the American Action Forum, a conservative public policy institute. He acknowledged the Fed's monetary policies halted the initial free fall by the financial industry, but he said the economy has had to catch up to the Fed's low interest rates.

"It took a long time for the housing market for them to matter and for the auto market for them to matter," Holtz-Eakin said. "So I don't think that's a policy victory."

If Democrats are eager to give President Barack Obama acclaim for spurring the recovery with an infusion of spending in 2009, there are just as many Republicans who will claim his health care law and his regulatory regimes slowed it.

If there is common ground among economists, it is that the next step in fiscal policy should be focused on reining in long-term spending on entitlements programs, particularly Medicare, instead of continuing debates over short-term spending. But such a grand bargain has been elusive, caught in a fight over Obama's desire for more tax revenue and Republican opposition to more tax increases.

Obama and some Republicans are trying to move the process with phone calls and a dinner here and a luncheon there. Next week, the president plans to address Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate in separate meetings to see, as he put it Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address, "if we can untangle some of the gridlock."

Who gets credit does have political consequences. A strong economy would create more space for Obama to pursue other aspects of his second-term agenda. But it's an important question for the long term, too, because if the recovery is indeed accelerating it could validate the policies that the Obama administration and the Fed put in place.

Hiring has been boosted by high corporate profits and by strength in the housing, auto, manufacturing and construction sectors. Corporate profits are up. Still, it might be too soon to declare victory. While the recovery may be getting traction, the U.S. economy is not yet strong.

Economic growth is forecast to be a modest 2 percent this year. Unemployment, even as it drops, remains high nearly four years after the end of the Great Recession, with roughly 12 million people out of work.

Last year's early months also showed strong job gains only to see them fade by June.

March could prove to be a more telling indicator as the economy responds to a third month of higher Social Security taxes and as across-the-board spending cuts that kicked in March 1 begin to work their way through government programs. Economists say anticipation of the cuts already caused a downturn in the fourth quarter of last year as the defense industry slowed spending. The Congressional Budget Office and some private forecasters say the coming cuts could reduce economic growth by about half a percentage point and cost about 700,000 jobs by the end of 2014.

"My view is that aggressive monetary and fiscal policy response to the recovery has been a net positive," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.

But referring to the automatic cuts, he said, "Fiscal policies have turned from a very powerful tailwind to a pretty significant head wind." And, he added, "the economy is going to be tested again in the next few months."

Obama has been distancing himself from the potential consequences of the automatic cuts, even though he signed the legislation that put them in place. Initially, they were designed to be so onerous that it would force all sides to work out a long-term deficit-reduction and debt-stabilization package. But that agreement never materialized.

If the recovery has been slow, White House officials argue, it is because Republicans have been unwilling to yield to Obama's demands for deficit reduction that combines tax increases and cuts in spending.

Obama himself seemed to touch on that viewpoint in his weekly address.

"At a time when our businesses are gaining a little more traction, the last thing we should do is allow Washington politics to get in the way," he said while heralding good economic news. "You deserve better than the same political gridlock and refusal to compromise that has too often passed for serious debate over the last few years."

Vitner, the Wells Fargo economist, argues that if anyone deserves credit for the recovery, it is the American public and American businesses "for being able to tune out all the noise that's coming from Washington."

"It's remarkable," he said, "that in the face of so much political uncertainty we've been able to see the growth that we have."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/politicians-look-credit-rising-economy-172507043--finance.html

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As It Hits 3M Users After 6 Months, hoppr Checks-In Its Bid To Be India?s Foursquare

While Foursquare has been concentrating on smartphones for some year now, much of the rest of the world has remained on a feature phone (though that of course is changing). So the opportunity to do location-based services has been limited - though not impossible. It has always been possible to triangulate a phones' rough location based on the nearest three base stations using. So taking that idea, last year a new startup called hoppr launched in India, offering real benefits to people who could simply SMS to check in their location and gain benefits with local retailers. That simple strategy has lead to the point today where, after only six months in full operation, hoppr has garnered over three million registrations and over a million monthly active users.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/5tMCjOrt5KM/

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Canon Pixma MX522 Wireless Office All-In-One Printer

Basically a beefed-up version of the Canon Pixma MX452 Wireless Office All-In-One Printer that I recently reviewed, the Canon Pixma MX522 Wireless Office All-In-One Printer adds enough extras to easily justify the higher price. Most notably, it adds an Ethernet port, a duplexer (for two-sided printing), a color LCD for the front panel menu, and the ability to print from a USB memory key. The extras make it that much more attractive as either a personal printer in any size office or for the dual role of home and home-office printer.

Like the Canon MX452, the MX522 can print and fax from, as well as scan to, a PC, and it can work as a standalone copier and fax machine. For scanning, it offers the same capability as well, with a letter-size flatbed supplemented by a 30-page automatic document feeder that can handle legal size pages. It also offers the same ability to scan to a USB key, but adds printing from a USB key as well, with the ability to preview the files on its 2.5-inch color LCD.

In theory, given that the MX522 offers both Ethernet and Wi-Fi, you can use it as a shared printer. In practice, however, its 100-sheet paper capacity limits its usefulness for sharing, except for the dual roll of home and home-office printer. Even by micro-office standards, a 100-sheet input tray is likely to empty out often enough to make refilling it a minor annoyance. Very much on the plus side, if you need to print duplex documents even occasionally, the automatic duplexer is a welcome convenience.

Other conveniences worth mention are support for printing through the cloud and support for AirPrint. You can't connect directly to the printer by Wi-Fi to use AirPrint, however. The printer and your phone or tablet will have to connect through a Wi-Fi access point on your network. One other convenience, primarily for home use, is Wireless PictBridge for printing wirelessly from a camera. However, the feature works only with select Canon cameras.

Setup, Speed, and Output Quality
For my tests, I connected the printer to a wired network and installed the drivers and software on a Windows Vista system. Setup was standard fare.

Unfortunately, print speed is not one of the MX522's strong points. When I reviewed the MX452, I pointed out that it was a little slow, but not unusually slow for the price. The MX522 isn't any faster. Given that it costs more, however, the speed is more of an issue.

On our business applications suite, I clocked the MX522 (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing) at the same 2.1 pages per minute (ppm) as I got for the MX452. In comparison, the similarly priced Editors' Choice Epson WorkForce WF-3520was more than twice as fast, at 4.4 ppm. Photo speed was also slow, averaging 2 minutes 9 seconds for a 4 by 6. The WF-3520 came in at just 1:12.

As with the Canon MX452, the MX522 does much better on output quality than on speed. It delivered better text in my tests than most inkjet MFPs, par quality for graphics, and just barely par quality for photos.

That makes both text and graphics good enough for most business needs, with the graphics output easily suitable for PowerPoint handouts and the like. Depending on your level of perfectionism, you may or may not consider the graphics quality good enough for output going to an important client or customer when you need it to look fully professional. Photo quality is roughly a match for the low end of what you would expect from drug store prints.

I'd like this printer a lot more if it offered higher paper capacity and better speed. However, it balances its shortcomings in both with its output quality for text and graphics and its full set of office-oriented MFP features, including the ADF, duplexer, standalone and PC-based faxing, and ability to scan to and print from a USB key. If you need more heavy-duty printing, be sure to look at the Epson WorkForce WF-3520. But if you don't print a lot of pages, the Canon Pixma MX522 Wireless Office All-In-One Printer can serve nicely for light-duty print needs with an emphasis on output quality.

More Multifunction Printer Reviews:
??? Canon Pixma MX452 Wireless Office All-In-One Printer
??? Canon Pixma MX522 Wireless Office All-In-One Printer
??? Dell B3465dnf Multifunction Laser Printer
??? HP LaserJet Pro 200 color MFP M276nw
??? Canon Pixma MG5420 Wireless Photo All-In-One Printer
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/ia0rJn_rKhE/0,2817,2416287,00.asp

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Improper protein digestion in neurons identified as a cause of familial Parkinson's

Improper protein digestion in neurons identified as a cause of familial Parkinson's

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), with collaborators at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, have discovered how the most common genetic mutations in familial Parkinson's disease damage brain cells. The mutations block an intracellular system that normally prevents a protein called alpha-synuclein from reaching toxic levels in dopamine-producing neurons. The findings suggest that interventions aimed at enhancing this digestive system, or preventing its disruption, may prove valuable in the prevention or treatment of Parkinson's. The study was published March 3 in the online edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Parkinson's disease is characterized by the formation of Lewy bodies (which are largely composed of alpha-synuclein) in dopamine neurons. In 1997, scientists discovered that a mutation in alpha-synuclein can lead to Lewy body formation. "But alpha-synuclein mutations occur in only a tiny percentage of Parkinson's patients," said co-lead author David L. Sulzer, PhD, professor of neurology, pharmacology, and psychiatry at CUMC. "This meant that there must be something else that interfered with alpha-synuclein in people with Parkinson's."

Dr. Sulzer and his colleagues suspected that a gene called leucine-rich repeat kinase-2 (LRRK2) might be involved. LRRK2 mutations are the most common mutations to have been linked to Parkinson's. The current study aimed to determine how these mutations might lead to the accumulation of alpha-synuclein.

"We found that abnormal forms of LRRK2 protein disrupt a critical protein-degradation process in cells called chaperone-mediated autophagy," said Dr. Sulzer. "One of the proteins affected by this disruption is alpha-synuclein. As this protein starts to accumulate, it becomes toxic to neurons." Delving deeper, the researchers found that LRRK2 mutations interfere with LAMP-2A, a lysosome membrane receptor that plays a key role in lysosome function.

(Chaperone-mediated autophagy, or CMA, is responsible for transporting old or damaged proteins from the cell body to the lysosomes, where they are digested into amino acids and then recycled. In 2004, Dr. Sulzer and the current paper's other co-lead author, Ana Maria Cuervo, MD, PhD, professor of developmental & molecular biology, of anatomy & structural biology, and of medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, showed that alpha-synuclein is degraded by the CMA pathway.)

"Now that we know this step that may be causing the disease in many patients, we can begin to develop drug treatments or genetic treatments that can enhance the digestion of these disease-triggering proteins, alpha-synuclein and LRRK2, or that remove alpha-synuclein," said Dr. Sulzer.

While LRRK2 mutations are the most common genetic cause of Parkinson's, it is too early to tell whether these findings, and therapies that might stem from them, would apply to patients with non-familial Parkinson's, the more common form of the disease. "Right now, all we can say is that it looks as though we've found a fundamental pathway that causes the buildup of alpha-synuclein in people with LRRK2 mutations and links these mutations to a common cause of the disease. We suspect that this pathway may be involved in many other Parkinson's patients," said Dr. Sulzer.

The study involved mouse neurons in tissue culture from four different animal models, neurons from the brains of patients with Parkinson's with LRRK2 mutations, and neurons derived from the skin cells of Parkinson's patients via induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell technology. All the lines of research confirmed the researchers' discovery.

###

Columbia University Medical Center: http://www.cumc.columbia.edu

Thanks to Columbia University Medical Center for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127159/Improper_protein_digestion_in_neurons_identified_as_a_cause_of_familial_Parkinson_s

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PHOTO: Journalist Receive Slaps At 56 Independence Anniversary Parade

Two journalists accredited to cover the country's 56th Independence Anniversary Parade in Accra Wednesday were manhandled by some security personnel.

A Ghanaian Times photographer, Vincent Dzatse received slaps from a security man. Meanwhile a Daily Graphic photographer, Nii Martey Botwe also had his penis subjected to electric shock because he attempted to take photographs of President John Mahama who was exchanging pleasantries with chiefs and leaders of political parties at the parade ground.

The Ghanaian Times photographer, who is also the presidential photographer, said he was slapped several times by a military policeman. His colleague from the Graphic also said he was dragged and pushed around by the other security men.

Some accredited senior journalists who covered proceedings from the Independence Arch side of the square also reported being insulted by some of the military personnel on duty.

Dumbfounded, Mr Dzatse said: ?Although I have travelled around the world covering international assignments, I have never witnessed such humiliation and beatings before?.

He said he will be surprised if the military high command fails to investigate the matter and discipline those involved whose behavior marred the beauty of the event.

Source: http://news.peacefmonline.com/social/201303/157824.php

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Facebook Updates Its Photo Experience To Be More ?Immersive? In News Feed, Timeline And Albums

Today, Facebook has announced sweeping design changes to its News Feed, along with a total overhaul of its Photo experience. Photos are a huge part of what makes Facebook so engaging, and the company says that this new design is more “immersive.” Basically, the design highlights your photographs in the News Feed, your Timeline and Photo Albums. Photos from third-party apps like Pinterest and Instagram are also getting a better treatment, with larger and better-highlighted images. Additionally, photos that show up with location check-ins will get more love. “In the new design, we’re making sure that this media type is front and foremost” said Julie Zhou, Product Design Manager at Facebook. What we’re being shown is what Facebook calls a “richer, simpler” Facebook experience over all devices, including desktop. This consistency is key, as it’s something that Facebook has struggled with in the past. Facebook’s reason for acquiring Instagram has never been clearer. Photos are the entry point into so many people’s Facebook’s experience. For example, being tagged in a Facebook photo is one of the main hooks that keeps people coming back. It’s difficult not to click a link in the email you get when you’re tagged.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/dDCvAmjoqX0/

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?Sequester? may be 'dumb,' but most Americans like idea of spending cuts

About 62 percent of Americans see government spending as inefficient and bloated, a new Monitor/TIPP poll shows. They also much prefer general spending cuts to tax hikes or cuts in entitlement programs.

By Mark Trumbull,?Staff writer / March 6, 2013

People walk toward the US Capitol in Washington, March 4. The failure by US President Barack Obama and Republicans to agree to halt the $85 billion 'sequester' cuts virtually guaranteed that fiscal issues would remain center stage in Washington for weeks.

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

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Americans may not view the ?sequester? as an example of brilliant budgeting, but they largely agree on one thing: They support the idea of cutting federal spending.

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At least that?s what a new Christian Science Monitor/TIPP poll indicates, at a time of high-stakes bargaining in Washington over the size of the federal budget.

The public's approval for spending cuts isn?t rooted in expectations that they will help the economy in the short term. But it does appear tied to concerns that high federal deficits should be controlled, and that the government could use the same kind of belt-tightening that millions of private households have gone through in recent years.

The Monitor/TIPP poll asked Americans to say which of two views they agreed more with. One was that federal programs are ?riddled with waste and inefficiency,? and sizable cuts ?would help the economy over time.? The other was that the programs ?meet real needs for the nation, for individuals, and for businesses,? and that cuts would be harm the economy.

Some 62 percent of respondents opted for the ?riddled with waste? view, while 33 percent were on the ?meet real needs? side.

The result should be taken with grains of salt, of course. Just as people give Congress an abysmal approval rating while supporting their own congressional representative, they are prone to see government as inefficient in general, while being reluctant to cut cherished programs.

At the same time though, this poll suggests that many Americans don't necessarily see budget cuts as a terrible thing.

That?s an interesting finding, given that some other polls taken prior to the March 1 sequester found that Americans were hoping the cuts could be postponed or avoided. The distinction may be that Americans don't like the arbitrary nature of the sequester cuts (which hit most federal programs equally), but believe federal spending in general is bloated.

The poll, conducted by TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence for the Monitor and Investor?s Business Daily, also asked whether a 3 percent cut in federal spending (the rough size of the sequester, by one measure) is ?about right? or not. While 42 percent said it?s about right, an equal number said the cuts should be deeper.

Such poll results may also help explain why President Obama has softened his tone in recent days on fiscal matters, shifting from dire warnings about the effects of automatic spending cuts to more nuanced rhetoric.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/uj5g23KjU-Y/Sequester-may-be-dumb-but-most-Americans-like-idea-of-spending-cuts

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Venezuela: Chavez hit by new, severe infection

FILE - In this file photo released on Feb. 15, 2013 by Miraflores Presidential Press Office, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, center, poses for a photo with his daughters, Maria Gabriela, left, and Rosa Virginia at an unknown location in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013. Venezuela's government says that President Hugo Chavez's respiratory problems have gotten worse and that the ailing leader is in "very delicate" condition. Venezuela's Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas said late Monday, March 4, 2013, in a statement read on national television that the cancer-stricken socialist leader has a "severe infection." (AP Photo/Miraflores Presidential Press Office, File)

FILE - In this file photo released on Feb. 15, 2013 by Miraflores Presidential Press Office, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, center, poses for a photo with his daughters, Maria Gabriela, left, and Rosa Virginia at an unknown location in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013. Venezuela's government says that President Hugo Chavez's respiratory problems have gotten worse and that the ailing leader is in "very delicate" condition. Venezuela's Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas said late Monday, March 4, 2013, in a statement read on national television that the cancer-stricken socialist leader has a "severe infection." (AP Photo/Miraflores Presidential Press Office, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 11, 2011, file photo, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez points at his head to show that his hair has started to grow back after his last round of chemotherapy at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela. Venezuela's Communication and Information Minister Ernesto Villegas on Monday, March 4, 2013, reported that President Hugo Chavez's health has deteriorated and remains delicate. Villegas also announced in the national TV broadcaster VTV that the president is undergoing chemotherapy with high impact. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)

FILE - In this Feb. 15, 2013 file photo, a woman holds a newly purchased copy of a photo released by the government, showing Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez with two of his daughters, in Caracas,Venezuela. After more than eight years covering Venezuela, AP reporter Ian James finishes his assignment believing Venezuela's many long-term challenges, such as crime, corruption, a troubled economy and bitter political divisions, can seem as vast as the sea of crude oil that Venezuela sits atop. And with Chavez battling cancer, the country could be headed for big political shifts and possible turmoil. But James takes the view that the country's problems can be solved. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? A severe new respiratory infection has hit cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez and his condition is "very delicate," Venezuela's government says.

A brief statement read on national television by Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas late Monday carried the sobering news about the charismatic 58-year-old socialist leader's deteriorating health.

Villegas said Chavez is suffering from "a new, severe infection." The state news agency identified it as respiratory.

Chavez has been undergoing "chemotherapy of strong impact," Villegas added without providing further details.

Chavez has neither been seen nor heard from, except for photos released in mid-February, since submitting to a fourth round of surgery in Cuba on Dec. 11 for an unspecified cancer in the pelvic area. It was first diagnosed in June 2011.

The government says he returned home on Feb. 18 and has been confined to Caracas' military hospital since.

Villegas said Chavez was "standing by Christ and life, conscious of the difficulties he faces."

He also took the opportunity to lash out at "the corrupt Venezuelan right" for what he called a psychological war seeking "scenarios of violence as a pretext for foreign intervention."

The communications minister called on Chavez's supporters, who include thousands of well-armed militiamen, to be "on a war footing."

Upon Chavez's death, the opposition would contest the government's candidate in a snap election that it argues should have been called after Chavez was unable to be sworn in on Jan. 10 as the constitution stipulates.

Indeed, the campaigning has already begun, although undeclared. Vice President Nicolas Maduro, who Chavez has said should succeed him, has frequently commandeered all broadcast channels, Chavez-style, to tout the "revolution" and vilify the opposition.

Chavez has run Venezuela for more than 14 years as a virtual one-man show, gradually placing all state institutions under his personal control. But the former army paratroop commander who rose to fame by launching a failed 1992 coup, never groomed a successor with his force of personality.

Chavez was last re-elected on Oct. 7, and his challenger, youthful Miranda state Gov. Henrique Capriles, is expected to again be the opposition's candidate.

One of Chavez's three daughters, Maria Gabriela, expressed thanks to well-wishers via her Twitter account. "We will prevail!" she wrote, echoing a favorite phrase of her father. "With God always."

Maduro said last week that the president had begun receiving chemotherapy around the end of January.

Doctors have said that such therapy was not necessarily to try to beat Chavez's cancer into remission, but could have been palliative, to extend Chavez's life and ease his suffering.

Dr. Carlos Castro, scientific director of the Colombian League Against Cancer in Bogota, Colombia, said "it's difficult to predict" when Chavez might die, but he believes "it's a matter of days."

Castro said that Chavez could face further respiratory complications if he receives more intense chemotherapy treatment.

If the president's medical team "gives him strong chemotherapy again, then it would not be surprising if some infections reappear," Castro said in a telephone interview.

While in Cuba, Chavez suffered a severe respiratory infection in late December that nearly killed him, Maduro said last week. A tracheal tube was inserted then and government officials have said his breathing remained labored.

Libardo Rodriguez, a 60-year-old man who sells orange juice on the street in Caracas, said he was very worried after Monday evening's announcement regarding Chavez's condition. The government, he added, should provide more information.

"We are worried because he does not appear. The truth is that I don't know what's happening," said Rodriguez, a Chavez supporter.

Rodriguez complained about what he described as the government's vague updates regarding Chavez's health.

"There are many rumors and nobody knows who to believe," he said. "We hope he's alive."

In Cuba, Chavez has undergone a series of radiation treatments and chemotherapy after his operations. But the entire treatment regimen was kept far from public scrutiny.

___

Associated Press writer Vivian Sequera in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-05-LT-Venezuela-Chavez/id-275fdbbbba4943cb8902bc43a446fa04

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Ex-DEA heads, UN panel urge US to nullify pot laws

CHICAGO (AP) -- Eight former U.S. drug chiefs warned the federal government Tuesday that time is running out to nullify Colorado and Washington's new laws legalizing recreational marijuana use, and a United Nations agency also urged challenges to the measures it says violate international treaties.

The former Drug Enforcement Administration chiefs criticized Barack Obama's administration for moving too slowly to file a lawsuit that would force the states to rescind the legislation. Marijuana is illegal under federal law.

"My fear is that the Justice Department will do what they are doing now: do nothing and say nothing," former DEA administrator Peter Bensinger told The Associated Press in an interview Monday. "If they don't act now, these laws will be fully implemented in a matter of months."

Bensinger, who lives in the Chicago area, said if the federal government doesn't immediately sue the states it'll risk creating "a domino effect" in which other states legalize marijuana too.

The statement from the DEA chiefs came the same day the International Narcotics Control Board, a U.N. agency, made its appeal in an annual drug report, calling on federal officials to act to "ensure full compliance with the international drug control treaties on its entire territory."

But Brian Vicente, co-author of the Colorado pot legalization law, said a handful of North American countries have expressed support for legalization.

"You have two states revolting and they're saying it doesn't work in their state and their community and it sends a strong message globally," he said.

A lawyer who led Washington's legalization campaign said the focus should be on reconciling the Colorado and Washington votes with federal law and treaty obligations.

"Ultimately, we do need to see these laws and treaties change," Alison Holcomb said Tuesday. "We're not going to get resolution overnight."

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told a meeting of state attorneys general last week that he is still reviewing the laws but that his review is winding down. Asked Monday for a comment on the criticism from the former DEA administrators, Holder spokeswoman Allison Price would only say, "The Department of Justice is in the process of reviewing those initiatives."

The department's review has been under way since shortly after last fall's elections. It could sue to block the states from issuing licenses to marijuana growers, processors and retail stores, on the grounds that doing so conflicts with federal drug law. Alternatively, Holder could decide not to mount a court challenge.

The ex-DEA heads are issuing the statements through the Florida-based Save Our Society from Drugs. One of its spokesmen is based in Chicago.

The former DEA administrators are Bensinger, John Bartels, Robert Bonner, Thomas Constantine, Asa Hutchinson, John Lawn, Donnie Marshall and Francis Mullen. They served for both Republican and Democratic administrations.

Holder is scheduled to appear Wednesday before a U.S. Senate judiciary committee hearing. The former DEA chiefs want senators to question Holder on the legalization issue.

Advocates of legalization have welcomed Colorado and Washington's new laws, arguing that criminalizing drugs creates serious though unintended social problems. The ex-DEA heads say they disagree with that view.

After votes last fall, Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize marijuana's recreational use ? putting federal authorities in a quandary over how, or whether, to respond.

Washington state officials responsible for creating a regulated marijuana system have said they are moving forward with a timetable of issuing producer licenses by August.

Bensinger ? who served as DEA administrator under Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan ? said the supremacy of federal law over state law when it comes to drug laws isn't in doubt.

"This is a no-brainer," he said. "It is outrageous that a lawsuit hasn't been filed in federal court yet."

Advocates of less stringent drug laws criticized the ex-DEA heads later Tuesday.

Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance, said the eight are destined to share the legacy of agents who enforced alcohol prohibition before that policy was deemed a failure and reversed in 1933.

"The former DEA chiefs' statement can best be seen as a self-interested plea to validate the costly and failed policies they championed but that Americans are now rejecting at the ballot box," Nadelmann said.

___

AP Writers P. Solomon Banda in Denver and Gene Johnson in Seattle also contributed to this report.

___

Follow Michael Tarm at www.twitter.com/mtarm

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ex-dea-heads-un-panel-001129677.html

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Stressed-Out Tadpoles Pump Up Their Tails

Tadpoles grow pumped-up tails when stressed out by the threat of predators nearby, a new study finds.

These beefed-up tails help the tadpoles escape predators such as dragonfly larvae, according to research published today (Feb. 5) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The chemical signal that allows this change is a stress hormone called corticosterone, similar to cortisol in humans.

"The larger picture is that we've known for a long time that animals have what are called plastic responses to the environment," said study researcher Robert Denver, an endocrinologist at the University of Michigan, referring to body changes that occur in response to environmental cues.

"We provide a mechanism for how the environmental signal is sensed and how that's translated into an adaptive morphological response," Denver told LiveScience. [5 Ways Your Cells Deal With Stress]

Stressed-out tadpoles

Denver and his colleagues had already observed that tadpoles housed in the same water as predators respond in two ways. First, they freeze up and stay motionless for hours when first exposed. Then, over the next week or so, the tadpoles develop large, thick tails. (A far more natural process than other recent tadpole news, in which scientists induced tadpoles to grow eyes on their tails.)

These responses only occur when tadpoles sense a pheromone released by other tadpoles upon being attacked. The tadpoles also release this pheromone when they're poked with a hypodermic needle, Denver said, which allows researchers to collect the chemical without feeding the tadpoles to dragonfly larvae.

The researchers wanted to understand how the stress systems of the tadpoles responded to this pheromone. "We know that when animals get attacked by predators, or if there are predators around, they typically mount a stress response, so stress hormones go up," Denver said.

But that's not what happened when the researchers exposed wild-caught tadpoles of the wood frog (Rana sylvatica) to water where dragonfly larvae lived (caged off, so they couldn't hunt the tadpoles). In fact, for the first few hours, the tadpoles actually suppressed their stress systems.

"This allows them to stay quiet for a few hours," Denver said. The drop in stress hormones leads to less of an urge to move around and forage, he said.

Long-term strategy

Holding still may work for a while, but tadpoles eventually have to get moving again. Their stress hormones seem to facilitate that: By about 24 hours, they'd risen back to baseline levels, the researchers found, and by four days, they were higher than in tadpoles kept in water without predators. This increased corticosterone level persisted for at least eight days after it spiked.

The researchers hypothesized that the corticosterone increase was triggering the tail growth in predator-stressed tadpoles. To test the idea, they exposed tadpoles directly to corticosterone-infused water. Sure enough, the tadpoles' tails grew.

In another experiment, the researchers grew tadpole tails in a dish. Adding corticosterone beefed up the disembodied tails, too.

Finally, the researchers exposed large-tailed tadpoles to real-life predator scenarios, allowing the dragonfly larvae out of their cages. More large-tailed tadpoles survived than normal-tailed tadpoles, Denver said.

"That suggests there is an enhanced fitness of these animals," he said.

The researchers next hope to learn more about the structure and the function of the alarm pheromone that triggers these stress hormone changes, ultimately leading to bigger-tailed tadpoles. They'd also like to know more about how corticosterone acts on the tail to make it grow, Denver said.

Follow Stephanie Pappas @sipappas. Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience, Facebook?or Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stressed-tadpoles-pump-tails-000515982.html

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